David Cameron to settle scores in his memoirs, starting with 'lunatic' Michael Gove

Written by James Millar on 6 August 2018 in Diary

Diary

Former PM piles in as rivals jockey for the Tory leadership

David Cameron is set to work out his anger in his forthcoming memoirs and his first target is former chum Michael Gove.

According to friends of the former PM Cameron blames the Environment Secretary for the fact he lost the EU referendum and with it his political career.

Fellow Old Etonian Boris Johnson was seen to have betrayed Cameron when he came out for Leave in the run up to the Brexit vote. But it seems Cameron has forgiven him, the two having met up before last month's crunch Chequers cabinet meeting that ultimately triggered Johnson's resignation.

However Cameron has not spoken to Gove, once a key ally in rebranding the Conservatives and winning power in 2010, since he left Downing Street.

According to sources close to Cameron he will be "honest" about his feelings towards Gove, particularly after the then Justice Secretary joined up with fellow Cabinet Eurosceptics to campaign for Leave. A friend told The Sunday Times: "Cameron was really anti-Gove. He was saying he was a lunatic. He had not realised quite how mad Michael Gove was until that whole incident."

Cameron's intervention is seen as being carefully timed to dent Gove's leadership ambitions. After kiboshing Borish Johnsons hopes of winning the leadership after the Brexit vote and running himself, Gove has won plaudits for his style and success as Environment Secretary. He also chose to back Theresa May's Chequers plan for Brexit rather than quit like David Davis and Boris Johnson. This has seen his stock fall among party members but won him admirers among Tory MPs. Sources close to Gove claim that Cameron has made up with Johnson because they are equally posh whereas the former PM sees Gove as a social inferior.